Tuesday, August 11, 2015

1907 - LF Forrest “Woody” Jensen was born in Bremerton, Washington. He spent his whole MLB career in Pittsburgh, playing from 1931-39. He hit .285 and started from 1935-37. His major league record of 696 at bats in 1936 held until Matty Alou broke it in 1969 with 698 AB.

1935 - The East-West Negro League All-Star game drew 25,000 to Comiskey Park. The fans got to watch an 11 inning thriller, with the West winning 11-8. C Josh Gibson of the Pittsburgh Crawfords led the West attack with four hits.

Josh Gibson undated Helmar brewery series

1966 - The Pirates scored three times in the ninth to defeat the NY Mets at Forbes Field by a 7-5 tally. Down 5-4 going into their last at-bats, Matty Alou opened with a single and was bunted to second. Roberto Clemente singled him home to tie the game, and Willie Stargell launched a bomb to win it. ElRoy Face picked up the win as the last of four relievers who tossed six scoreless innings against The Mets.

1977 - Pittsburgh rolled over the NY Mets 9-1 at TRS as Odell Jones tossed a five hitter. Bill Robinson homered, doubled and drove in four runs. Rennie Stennett went 4-for-4 and Phil Garner 3-for-4. The Cobra, Dave Parker, added a pair of hits to record his second 22 game hitting streak of the season. He had lesser streaks just before and after this one; he banged out hits in 41-of-44 games between July 4th and August 23rd.

1979 - The Pirates overcame an 8-0 deficit in the fifth to rally past the Phillies 14-11 at Veterans Stadium. All but one of the Pirates 14 runs came home with two outs, as did 17 of their 23 hits. Ed Ott had four hits to lead Pittsburgh, including an eighth inning grand slam off Tug McGraw, to go with three knocks from Omar Moreno, Tim Foli, Willie Stargell, John Milner and Bill Madlock. Moreno and Dave Parker homered for the Bucs.

1979 - Willie Stargell was featured on the cover of The Sporting News for the story “Sonic Boomer.” He was a boomer in the ‘79 season, going long 32 times for his highest HR production since 1973 and adding five more homers (and two MVP’s) during the NLCS and World Series.

1986 - The Cubs used a record 10 pitchers in a 17 inning 10-8 loss to the Pirates, which used seven hurlers of their own. The game was a continuation of an April 20th game that was postponed due to darkness. Winner Barry Jones‚ who struck out the side to end the game‚ and Barry Bonds‚ who had the game winning RBI‚ were both still in the minors when the original game started.

1994 - Zane Smith tossed a 4-0, five hit shutout without a single strikeout against the Expos, which at the time sported the best record in baseball, at TRS. The MLBPA went on strike the next day.

1996 - Clemson’s Kris Benson, the first overall selection of the 1996 draft, became the highest paid draftee to date when he signed with the Pirates for $2M.

2004 - After blowing a two run lead in the ninth, the Pirates got a two run homer in the 11th inning from Craig Wilson to drop the San Francisco Giants at PNC Park by an 8-6 score. Jason Bay was the man of the hour, going 4-for-6 with a homer and four RBI, while Jose Castillo added a long ball to earn the W for John Grabow.

John Grabow 2009 O-Pee-Chee series

2005 - Nine batters came to the plate in the first inning and scored six runs to lead the Pirates to an 11-3 victory over the Rockies at Coors Field. Pittsburgh pounded out 17 hits in the game and six of the starting position players had at least two hits, with Jason Bay, Ryan Doumit and Jose Castillo collecting three apiece. Brad Eldred homered, Castillo had three RBI and Josh Fogg picked up the win against Colorado.

2009 - Andrew McCutchen put on a show with just one hit against the Colorado Rockies. He went 1-for-2 with a double, walked three times, scored three runs and stole three bases in a 7-3 win at Coors Field. The Bucs hit five doubles and a triple, using a balanced attack to earn the win for Ross Ohlendorf.

2014 - The Pirates jumped on Justin Verlander and the Detroit Tigers for five first inning runs, keyed by Starling Marte’s bases loaded triple, and rolled to an 11-6 win at PNC Park in front of 35,314 fans. The Pirates padded their lead with four homers during the game, two by Travis Snider, who went 3-for-5 with four RBI and three runs scored; Ike Davis and Russ Martin also went long. Josh Harrison added three hits, while Martin and Jordy Mercer had a pair of knocks each. Jeff Locke got the win even though he gave up four runs in five innings of work. The Tigers were coming off a 19-inning game, and had to use three pitchers just recalled from AAA Toledo in the contest.

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